


The Knife's Edge

by Minutia_R



Series: A Wormhole Jump to Tuonela [1]
Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vorkosigan Saga Fusion, Barrayaran Customs, Family, Gen, Mentions of Infanticide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-25 01:25:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12025176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minutia_R/pseuds/Minutia_R
Summary: Nearly a hundred years ago, the world changed forever.





	The Knife's Edge

**Author's Note:**

> I'm afraid that this one isn't going to make a lick of sense if you haven't read the Vorkosigan Saga though, sorry.

When Dowager Countess Vorhotakainen’s mother was pregnant with her--before the Dowager Countess was any of those things--she looked up at the sky one night and saw a constellation that had never been there before, nearly outshining the moons. It was shaped like the jagged jaw of a fish. And she knew, with the fey sensitivity that had always run in the family, that the world was about to change forever.

At least, that’s how the family story went. Anne-Mari had first heard it from her husband. Later, from her brother-in-law and even from her sister-in-law, as if Anne-Mari was the newcomer to the clan and not Tuulikki. Once her son had told it to her, wide-eyed with the solemn consciousness that he would be Count Vorhotakainen one day. Wasn’t it incredible, he said, that great-grandma had actually seen the first Betan Expeditionary Force ship arrive?

Anne-Mari had had to explain to Onni, gently, that it wasn’t likely. She didn’t know exactly how old the Dowager Countess was--the Cetagandan invasion had destroyed a lot of records, and in Vorhotakainen’s District like many rural districts the records had never been meticulously kept in the first place--but surely she couldn’t be _that_ old. If her mother had seen anything at all it was probably the Cetagandan invasion force. How would a single ship look like a fish’s jaw, anyway? And as for fey sensitivity--well, by that point even the deepest backcountry dwellers knew what a spaceship was, even if few of them had ever seen one.

But the bitterest lie, Anne-Mari thought as she settled her daughter in the crib, hastily pulling the cloth cover over it to shield her from jealous eyes, was that the world had changed forever. It had been nearly a century since the Betans arrived, bringing with them technology so amazing that it seemed like magic, horizons wider than her ancestors could ever have imagined. And still, just now when Anne-Mari was nursing the baby, she’d felt the edge of a tooth, and her heart had iced over. But the tooth hadn’t broken through yet. There was still time. Time before Anne-Mari would be expected to present the world--the Dowager Countess not least--with a clean baby, or else a bloody knife.

The problem was that the world hadn’t changed enough.

**Author's Note:**

> In this AU, I guess it's Ukko-Pekka whose family name is Hotakainen? Also, Jukka should really be named Saku, but since I haven't given his name at all, I think we can just ignore it. Onni, however, is definitely Ukko-Pekka Onni rather than Onni Ukko-Pekka. ANYWAY.
> 
> I would like to thank Laufey for consulting about Finnish customs surrounding newborns, which managed to dovetail somewhat with the Barrayaran ones.
> 
> Please feel free to correct me about, well, anything. I mulled over this for a while and then wrote and posted it in a hurry.


End file.
